Origin

Universe

Place of Birth

Creators

Contents

History

Moore family.

Frank[1] Moore and his sister were the children of Harris Moore,[4] a rich man[7] and costumed superhero known as the Comet[3][8] who was active before the boom of superpowered individuals that began with the Fantastic Four,[6] and his wife Helen. The Harrises had income, a car and a single family house in ownership.[4] Although Harris's identity being the Comet was confidential,[1] Frank knew his father's secret.[3]

An enemy of the Comet also discovered it and put a prince on his head.[4] An assassin shot an explossive projectile to the Harris home, blowing it up. Harris's wife and daughter were killed,[1][4] but Frank survived, having flied out fortuitously due to the explosion's force.[1] Harris survived too but, being unable to find the bodies of his family, he mistakenly believed that Frank had died too.[1][4] Harris, apparently having lost his superpowers[7][4] forfeited his career as the Comet,[1][4] destroyed any written record about his family,[1] and became a drunkard;[1][4] the Comet was given up for dead.[8]

Frank also believed that all his family had died. Roaming and crying on the remains of his home,[1] Frank swore to get even on organized crime, following his father's steps fighting crime under a costumed secret identity - The Crimebuster![1][3][6][9] Frank trained to have physical skills, hopelessly dreaming of a day where he would join the Comet confronting criminals.[9]

As an adult, the Crimebuster settled in Pottersville, New York; he rented a hovel there, leaving a change of clothes there.[5] He then started his career as a crimefighter, acting for two years in secret before his first appearance.[10]

This took place when the Hempstead National Bank was hold up by supercriminal Sandman and his gang in the morning. The Crimebuster burst in through a window, landing on one thug and knocking him down. A second mugger tried to hit the Crimebuster on the nape with a submachine gun; the Crimebuster played posum to have a chance to counter-attack with his lasso whammer. When the Sandman tried to join the fray, young superhero Nova revealed himself and locked him up in an air-tight vault. Crimebuster then friendly introduced himself to Nova, leaving in good terms, and with Crimebuster satisfied with his own performance - although the Sandman escaped.[10]

For the next several weeks, Crimebuster tracked gangster Boss Krimmons and his gang of antique furniture thieves. The Crimebuster's sources pointed him to Krimmons' lair, a warehouse near East River in Long Island. Crimebuster lurked on a rooftop before attacking, being found by Nova. Nova joined him for the raid and, together, they defeated the crook: Crimebuster leaped on two enemies, then netted a third, running man. Nova stopped a truck-driving escapee, but failed to get information from him. Crimebuster, understanding that the hoodlum was scared of Krimmons, questioned him using his hypnotic beam, and got Krimmons' position. Crimebuster then rejected Nova's offer to help him in that step, instead asking Nova to deliver the prisoners to the police while Crimebuster himself finished his own quest, leaving him in good terms. Both heroes were unaware that fugitive Michael Burley was chasing them.[11]

Burley's actions led to[12] the Comet recovering his powers, his attitude and his crimefighting activities.[8] This attracted the Crimebuster's attention: First, the Crimebuster was skeptical, believing that he would have already known about this should it be true. The Crimebuster decided to track the Comet and test him with his technology: If he was the original Comet, he would surely be able to defeat the Crimebuster and shrug off any attack. While piloting his flying lab, the Crimebuster found the Comet and attacked him with his cannon; the Comet was caught flat-footed, but resisted. The Crimebuster then released a smoke spring and tried to position his ship, but the Comet's electric powers dispelled the cloud. Still unsure, the Crimebuster netted his father, only for the Comet to break the net and attack the Crimebuster. The Crimebuster then offered to land and explain his actions. Once the Crimebuster showed his face, the Comet recognized him as his missing son.[1]

When the Comet and the Crimebuster shared origin stories, they discovered they were both allies to Nova.[13] The Comet was worried about Nova and tracked him using his powers, with the Crimebuster agreeing to follow him as a sidekick. Unbeknown to them, Nova's enemy and supercriminal Diamondhead was stowawaying on the Crimebuster's vehicle.[1]

The Harrises found Nova fighting another superpowered sparring of his, Powerhouse. As soon as Comet and Crimebuster joined Nova, they were all abducted through a green bolt to a Xandarian starship[1][14] seized by the immortal wizard called the Sphinx.[1] The Sphinx wanted to access the information in the computer network of the planet Xandar in the Andromeda Galaxy[9] - although Xandar had allegedly been destroyed,[3] the Sphinx insisted to go there, believing that the computers would have endured the holocaust, and that they hold the secret to end his own immortality. The Sphinx restaured amnesiac Powerhouse's memory, revealing him to be a Xandarian officer, and assigned him to pilot the ship. The Crimebuster took this chance to spend time with his father, with Nova envying them as he himself missed his own family.[9]

They had one more stowaway: Doctor Sun, a brain preserved on a robot body[3] who had enter the ship to loot her, and found himself suddenly trapped when the intergalactic travel entered phase condition. Doctor Sun confronted the Sphinx, but was defeated. Diamondhead then revealed himself and angrily demanded to go back to Earth, but he was also defeated by the Sphinx.[9]

Xandar had not been completely destroyed, and the surviving Xandarians rebuilt their civilization[3] on four huge rocky pieces of the planet, connected by bridges.[2][3] However, soon after this, they faced the invasion of the extraterrestrial shapeshifting species Skrulls, who aimed to add Xandar to their empire.[3][13] The Xandarian militia and Nova Corps, although more powerful than ever, proved insufficient against this threat,[3] leading to Xandarian suzerain Adora recruiting Earthling superheroes the Fantastic Four to help them.[3][15] The Fantastic Four took their own ship to travel to Xandar.[16]

En route to Xandar, the starship was found and attacked by a Skrull enemy fleet[9] also on the way to Xandar.[14] Comet, Nova, Powerhouse and the Sphinx left the ship to counter the raid. Meanwhile, onboard, Crimebuster prevented Diamondhead from sabotaging the controls. This angered Diamondhead, who reacted by repeatedly beating up Crimebuster until he was ready to punch him death. The Sphinx, sensing this fight (and believing that he may need all possible help soon), froze Diamondhead to save the Crimebuster.[9]

The ship reached the planet Xandar, which was under attack. Doctor Sun and Powerhouse insisted that they should land, but Crimebuster could not find a away.[16] They had an encounter with a Skrull ship that had been seized by the Fantastic Four (minus the Human Torch). Nova's crew destroyed the ship, believing the crew to be Skrulls.[16] They soon saw their error, as the Four survived the explosion in the Invisible Woman's force field, giving Nova a chance to rescue them. As soon as they boarded and negotiated a truce,[17] the Sphinx teleported away,[14][17] followed by Doctor Sun. The Fantastic Four revealed to Crimebuster and the others that the Four had been poisoned and were to day in matter of days.[17]

The ship landed on Xandar, finding suzerain Adora and the Human Torch, who had just arrived on his own. Adora reported that two of the four sections had fallen; and Fantastic Four leader Mr. Fantastic decided that their priority was to stop the Sphinx from getting to the computers, as he would become too powerful.[17] Meanwhile, Xandarian Thoran Rul went to the computer system for help[16] and, after a complex procedure, sprang up as the superpowerful Protector, who flew leading the Xandarian space militia,[17]Nova Corps, to chase the Skrull ships.[15] witnessed by Adora and the newcomers. Nova then offered Adora his help against the Skrulls, with his partners joining him.[17]

The nine heroes went to the computer system to find an almost allpowerful, humungous Sphinx, who had already obtained his valuable information. Taking control of the energy of a distant sun to power his own hand-bolts, the Sphinx knocked down the Torch and the Invisible Woman. The Comet jumped to a chance to fight, even with Crimebuster recommending caution. Nova reprimanded the Crimebuster for his less-than-heroic attitude, but the Sphinx was indeed very powerful and the team could not harm him. When the Comet insisted on attacking the Sphinx, the Sphinx replied by shooting Crimebuster directly, severily hurting him. The Comet had to stop his attack to check his son and, once he confirmed the Crimebuster was alive, the Comet charged against the Sphinx - to be easily defeated by the later.[17] The vastly powerful Sphinx[14][17][18] left on a quest to destroy Earth.[3][14][17][18]

The heroes regrouped for a moment. Mr. Fantastic arranged a plan,[17][19] where the Fantastic Four left Xandar to save Earth and stop the Sphinx,[3][14][17][19] while the others, which he christened "the Champions",[17] would protect Xandar from the Skrulls.[13][17] Nova and the Crimebuster seconded the idea.[19] The Champions were a bit confused at Mr. Fantastic's plan, that included recruiting Galactus and building the Humanoid Experimental Robot B-Type Integrated Electronics with the help of Xandar's computers.[19] None knew that Doctor Sun's consciousness, hidden in the Xandarian computers, took this chance to enter the harmless-looking robot.[20] Mr. Fantastic's plan eventually succeeded and the Sphinx was defeated.[18]

The Skrull fleet retreated -to meet with more military assets and renew it attack,[19] but the Champions protected Xandar against further Skrull attacks,[2][3][14][15][21] coordinating the Nova Corps from the Nova-Prime starship or the planet itself.[2] During the following months, they were joined by Xandarian superhero the Protector[3][13] and by Nova-Prime, Centurion of the Nova Corps;[2][3][13][21] and they all earned respect and the name Champions of Xandar.[2][14]

After months of war effort,[3] the Skrull fleet retreated, chased by the Nova Corps fleet.[14] The Champions, having internal discrepancies, seceded:[15] Comet, Crimebuster and Diamondhead took a ship to follow the Nova Corps to battle, while Nova, Powerhouse and Protector remained on Xandar.[14][15] The planet soon lost contact with the spaceborn team.[15]

Oh my God! They've killed Crimebuster!

The Champions were betrayed by Diamondhead, who deserted to the Skrull side.[3][13][14][15] Diamondhead's actions allowed the Skrull to take the Xandarian smaller ships, then send a distress call that would lead the Champions to a trap. Crimebuster discovered the ruse,[15] but he was promptly killed[3][7][13][14][15] by a Skrull's[3] handgun before he could warn the other Champions. Witnessing this, the Comet tried to avange his son, but the Skrulls used the dimensional phaser technology to imprison Comet and many Xandarians in an alternate dimension; a number of Corps were killed, however.[15]

The Skrulls shapeshifted to impersonate Crimebuster and the other Champions and Nova Corps to reach Xandar in a triumph ceremony, taking the planet by surprise. This scheme was foiled by Nova and his new ally Rom, the GaladorianSpaceknight, whose presence the Skrulls did not expect. Nova found the ship, defeated and ejected Diamondhead, then released the surviving Champions, who joined the final battle in the war. During the fight, Comet used Crimebuster's plight as a warcry.[15]

After the final defeat of the Skrulls,[15] the Comet chose to remain on Xandar as a Champion, to keep the memory of his son.[3][15] Unlike him, Nova and Rom left for their respective birthworlds.[15] The Xandarian files listed Crimebuster as "Status: killed in action".[2]

The death of the Crimebuster, who had not been particularly well-known,[14] went as unnoticed on Earth as the planet and the war where he died. Frank Moore's ex-landlady rented his appartment to ex-con Eugene Mason, also selling him the clothes that Moore had left behind. Mason then took the Crimebuster's identity for his own ends, with no respect toward the original Crimebuster.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Abilities

The Crimebuster is trained in hand-to-hand-combat and has a good endurance,[6][10] having survived the impact of high energy bolts that would surely kill a less robust person.[17] He is also an excellent sharshooter, particularly with revolvers and pistols, and is good at solving mysteries and understanding criminal behavior to track evildoers.[22]

Strength level

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Eye-Lenses: The Crimebuster's glasses on his mask can project a hypnotic beam that he uses when questioning prisoners.[11]

Transportation

Flying Lab:[11] The Crimebuster's personal vehicle is a one-(leather)-seat hovering vessel that can be accessed in-flight using a rope ladder.[10] The vehicle has VTOL capabilities and a number of offensive capabilities, including one energy cannon, one so-called unbreakable net and the possibility of releasing a smoke screen. It does have a hidden compartment, big enough to hold a passenger.[1]

Weapons

Whammers:[11] The Crimebuster carries two customized guns in visible shoulder holsters. The pistols can shoot cables to be used to lasso enemies or to swing himself;[10] and also to launch a net cartridge, once more to capture an enemy in a non-lethal way.[11]